A Gremlin in the Works

With the British computer game scene about to explode, a small shop appeared on Sheffield’s Carver Street called Just Micro. It was founded by the partnership of Ian Stewart and Kevin Norburn, both with retail backgrounds but a desire to get into the business of games publishing. Fortunately the shop attracted local talent such as Pete Harrap, Shaun Hollingworth and Tony Crowther, and so, in 1984, Gremlin Graphics was formed.

Published in 2016 after a culmination of two years research, A Gremlin in the Works is the exhaustive history of Gremlin Graphics, from its roots in Just Micro through to its acquisition in 1999 by Infogrames and beyond.

Officially endorsed by founder Ian Stewart, the book features interviews and anecdotes from all of its key members, including Chris Kerry, Ben Daglish and Greg Holmes, along with stalwarts of the UK gaming scene: Rod Cousens, Tim Chaney, Jeremy Heath-Smith, Geoff Brown and Infogrames founder Bruno Bonnell among many others.

INLAY

Professional artwork started to legitimise games as an entertainment medium, and even turned some products into objects of desire – something to buy for the packaging as well as the contents. On platforms such as the ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 the crude pixel graphics of the games could never deliver what the fantasy land on the cover promised, but it did propel kid’s and their imaginations into the valley of quarrelling kings, the manager’s seat in the dugout, or behind the controls of a space-bound star fighter.

INLAY is a full-colour coffee table book celebrating box art from the glory days of computer games. From Football Manager to Zool, each piece has been lovingly and painstakingly recreated, completely by hand using the original box artwork as source material.

The result is a set of vivid, high definition images that restore lost detail, and in many cases present the work as it came from the studio and before any game title or ugly platform sticker.